Riots and post-election violence in Kenya may have killed up to 1,000 people, the opposition said on Monday as it halted protests and President Mwai Kibaki invited his main rival to talks.
The east African country has been hit by a wave of demonstrations and tribal clashes since Kibaki's disputed win in December 27 polls over opposition challenger Raila Odinga.
The government raised its death toll to nearly 500 and 255,000 displaced on Monday. But Odinga told Reuters that "closer to a thousand" people might have died.
Aid workers say the toll could go higher after one of Kenya's worst crises since independence from Britain in 1963.
Kibaki's office said he had invited Odinga and several religious leaders to talks on Friday on how to stop the violence, consolidate peace and forge "national reconciliation".
Odinga's aides could not immediately be reached for comment.
As international mediation efforts were stepped up, the head of the African Union, John Kufuor, was due to arrive in Nairobi on Tuesday, and Odinga said the Ghanaian president could begin chairing talks as early as Wednesday.
World powers have been horrified by the sudden outbreak of bloodshed in a country once seen as one of the continent's most stable democracies and promising economies.
In her first public comments since arriving on Friday, Washington's top diplomat for Africa said the crisis had not shaken U.S. confidence in Kenya as a strong regional hub.
"It has actually further deepened our sense that Kenya is a strong regional partner," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer told a news conference.
She said Kenyans had come together to "haul themselves back from the brink", but had been let down by their leaders.
"They have been cheated by their leadership and their institutions. ... The political leaders have to stop the violence ... and they have to reform the institutions."
Odinga had looked on course to win the December 27 ballot until Kibaki, 76, was handed a narrow victory. Both sides alleged widespread rigging and international observers say the poll fell short of democratic standards.
